Integra's Choice
by flashgemini
Summary: Integra wasn't always ready to take over Hellsing, this is what changed her mind. During the series, near the end. One-shot ^Complete^


It's been a long time since my master became who she is, she was a mere child, in fear for her life and trusting in her recently dead father to protect her. And who protected her and does do now? My name is a bit of a joke to those you can figure it out; Alucard is what I am called by Sir Integra and her men. Her father, on his death bed, told her about vampires and what they were, as well as what Hellsing is and what it is to be used for. She was 13 when she found me in the basement and not that happy about it when she did. There was something in her eyes, though not fear necessarily it was something around utter dislike to me. Of course, it was a matter of the monster that her father gave to her as protection, or the monster that wanted to brainwash her and use her for his plans for Hellsing. Despite this reason, her feelings towards me didn't change much, until one event that made her change her mind.  
  
At fourteen, Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing was a student at a girl's day school for the more noble children in London. She didn't enjoy it, if anything she hated it with a fiery vengeance, but she obliged the butler and went when she was supposed to. The day or rather the night or the attack was the parent/teacher conferences. She hadn't mentioned this fact Walter, her guardian, and so she was hiding in a class room lest one of the professors find her and contact him. A vampire got into the school and took to the parents as well as the students immediately. She was wise to hide, but something forced her out, a scream of a classmate and upon opening her doors she found a recent dead man, as she watched, he changed to a cannibalistic ghoul. She hid again and contacted Walter for herself.  
  
"Walter?"  
  
"Sir Integra, what is it child?"  
  
"There's something going on at the school, something's not right. I think there's a vampire."  
  
"What? What makes you say something like that?"  
  
"I saw a dead man and then he wasn't dead anymore."  
  
"Heavens, I'm on my way, where are you?"  
  
"Hiding."  
  
"I'll find you when I get there, stay where you are."  
  
He hung up the phone and looked at me; we had been conversing about her teaching as a Hellsing versus what she was being taught in that school. There was a look of worry on his face, he was nervous and began hunting through his pockets for his mono-filament wires.  
  
"Something wrong old man?"  
  
"There's been a vampire attack at Sir Integra's school; she's hiding in a classroom."  
  
"Interesting, shall I assist?"  
  
He didn't answer me, but we went to the school, stopping only at the doorstep to get the door open. Walter started on the ground floors, I took to top floors, mainly to find her and get her out. I didn't find her, what I found was a mess of ghouls, most of which were children. I killed them, watched them burst into ashes. Still it was a while before the top floors were clear and Integra was in no ways present. Coming back down the stairs, I found the butler in the principal's office, dust at his feet and looking a bit weary.  
  
"I'm getting too old for this."  
  
Before I could comment, the door opened a little, Walter prepared his wires for attack, I raised my gun, but lowered it quickly when Integra made her way in there and looked at us, she was a wreck, bloodied and frightened. Coming towards us, there was a gun in her hand and a look of trying strength and forced back tears. Instead of going to Walter she came and leaned against me, her grip on the gun a bit tighter than before. I reached down to her and took, or tried to take the gun from her, but she had a pretty good grip on it.  
  
"Master, give me the gun."  
  
"..It's dead, I killed it..he was my principal.."  
  
"Then give me the gun if it's dead."  
  
".."  
  
Her grip relaxed slightly, the gun dropping from her hand, her boy also dropped to the ground and sat there, staring at the dust on the ground. I don't like children, never did, but as Walter was a little preoccupied with getting his wires replaced so he wouldn't cut her by accident. Moving around so as to face her, kneeling down I took her face in my hand and brought it up so she could see. Removing my glasses with the other hand, she looked at me, her cold blue eyes looking more and more scared. Finally she pulled out of my grip and started to stand. I smirked and watched her stand, a little wobbly at first and then stronger as she went to her guardian and stood beside him.  
  
"I want to go home now, Walter."  
  
"Yes, Sir Integra. Let's get you home and cleaned up some."  
  
He took her away from there, away from the mess of the bodies, and the dead classmates. Outside, Walter had asked me to stay with her, he was going to find the car. Standing there, I wasn't watching her until she started to walk away.  
  
"Master?"  
  
She didn't get far, her legs falling out from under her and her falling ill to the ground. Coming towards her, I stopped, watched her carefully, before bending down and brushing her hair out of her mouth.  
  
"Why are you doing this.you're a monster.."  
  
"Maybe I am, but as it is, I'm here to protect you."  
  
She surprised me a little, looking at me, wiping off her mouth and leaning against my body, possibly looking for comfort. I picked her up, turning her around and carrying her back to where Walter had asked her to wait. She was clinging to me, her hands entwining my coat, her head against my shoulder. She looked up at me before she fell asleep there and made a small noise.  
  
"Alucard..you're so cold, why are you so cold?"  
  
"I'm dead, of course I'm cold."  
  
"Oh..I guess that was a stupid question."  
  
I didn't reply, it was a stupid question, but she was already sick, though this would be a wonderful time to mess with her, there was something about her that made me think twice about bothering her. When Walter returned, she was asleep in my arms, still clinging to me as though she were afraid she would slip away.  
  
*********  
  
It was a few nights after the attack that Integra awoke screaming. I came to her, standing in the shadows, watching her quake in the bed. I came out of the darkness and scared her a bit more than before.  
  
"Alucard, could you not do that!"  
  
"Did I frighten you, Master?"  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
"Very well, you screamed."  
  
"You are not my father; you don't have to check on things like that."  
  
"I am here to protect you, so said your father, if you scream, I should come, yes?"  
  
"..maybe.."  
  
I came nearer to her, stepping entirely out of the shadows and standing at the foot of her bed. She looked so dwarfed in that bed, a small doll in a large ocean of baby blue silk sheets. That smirk crept over my face and her expressions tightened.  
  
"What are you thinking, Alucard?"  
  
"You're frightened, aren't you?"  
  
"Of what, what do I have to be scared of; there is nothing that can hurt me."  
  
"And what of the incident at the school, you did not forget that, did you?"  
  
Silence, she hung her head and stared at the sheets, I watched as her hands tightened around the blanket and then released it, getting on her knees and crawling towards me.  
  
"Do you want me to be scared? Is that what you want?"  
  
"I want you to know what it is you are up against, you killed a vampire, good for you, could you do it again without feeling sick afterwards."  
  
"If I had to, I could. What does it matter to you?"  
  
"Hellsing is what your great-grandfather made it, you are supposed kill the vampires and their monsters. You've done it once, you have to be able to do this as your life."  
  
She stood up then, a little shakily because of the bed and tore the glasses off of my face. I took her hand back from me face and she struggled against my grip.  
  
"Don't touch me."  
  
"I want to see your eyes; I don't know who I'm talking to or even if you're listening if I can't see your eyes. Put me down!" I did as she asked, dropping her, watching her bounce and stare up at me. I left her there, a small child struggling with the monster in her and the ones that she was supposed to face for her life. The next evening I was called to her office, again I was looking at a small body in a large chair, a small girl taking on something that was too big for her.  
  
"Walter, Alucard..I know nothing about what is going on, Father told me about the vampires and what they do and about the ghouls, but he died before he could tell me anymore. I don't know anything about what Hellsing is except for things that I have read in the library at the school. I want to know, and be able to face these creatures. I will not take 'no' for an answer either, I am a Hellsing and I will take on the responsibility of my family."  
  
Walter took that as her order and carried it out in the next 10 years, teaching her and showing her where to aim and with what to attack them, though most of the time, the attacking was done by someone else and she was the one that ordered them to go. My part in this came through as the weapons teacher, in a way. Walter hated it when he would find her in the basement or out in the gardens with me at night when she was supposed to be in bed. I gave her a chance to practice with knives, swords and guns, teaching her to shoot, throw and in some cases catch the weapons. She wasn't the best at sword fighting, but in this age, there isn't a need for them, so it wasn't a necessary knowledge.  
  
She has grown in the time that I have known her, it seems that sometimes she forgets that it was the attack at her school and her killing of the vampire that made her decide, she had been asked to live a life of a noble woman or of the vampire hunter that her namesake comes from. It seems that she has taken both, she makes appearances as a noble, seeing the Queen and being a person, and then in the nights when she is not being a woman, she is Sir Integra, vampire hunter and master of a monster. We are about to face something very different, something she is not used to coming in contact with, a real vampire. We shall see if she is the little girl that ran into my cell in fear for her life, or her own personage that can and does face the evils that her world must face in order to survive. 


End file.
